However, what most people don't
realize is that Lauda has started not one, but two successful
airlines.

In 1979, the outspoken Austrian founded Lauda
Air while on hiatus from his Formula One career. From its
founding until its merger with Austrian Airlines in 2000, Lauda
Air was a successful charter airline operating a fleet of Boeing
737, 767 and 777 jets.

In 2003, three years after
leaving his first airline, Lauda founded his second airline,
Niki. The Austrian polymath served as the chief executive of his
profitable low-cost carrier until selling out to Air Berlin in
2011.

Here are some of the biggest
business mistakes airlines are making, according to Lauda:

1. Airlines forgot about the importance of
passengers

According to Lauda, the biggest
mistake large airlines make is that, in many instances, they
neglect their greatest asset: their passengers. "This is what the
big airlines sometimes forget," Lauda told F1 Magazine, "They are
too preoccupied with cutting down costs and fighting back and
forth with unions that they forget about the passengers."

For Lauda, an airline's
strategy should be to create return business from customers by
generating goodwill through high quality service at a competitive
price.

According to Lauda, airlines need flexibility to control
the cost of labor and acquisition cost of new airplanes.

"When I started Niki, we cut out alot of things like unions
and negotiated with with Airbus to get cheaper airplanes," said
Lauda. "I joined forces with Air Berlin because of their sales
power to [help sell tickets]."

According to Lauda, one mistake
he will never make is again is to merge two airlines without
taking into account the differences in corporate culture. The
entrepreneur merged his first company with the larger Austrian
Airlines in a deal that would eventually destroy the Lauda Air
brand. Lauda left the merged airline soon after the deal,
deciding that Austrian Airlines' differing corporate culture had
overrun his company. By 2013, the Lauda Air name had disappeared
completely from the skies after the Austrian Airlines Group
retired the brand.